Toy pistols

ABSTRACT

A toy pistol has a hammer mechanism which includes a hammer lever controlled by a cam surface which cooperates with a nose portion on the trigger lever. The cam surface is formed on a separate member turning about the same fixed pivot as the hammer lever and is spring loaded by means of a light spring so that it normally rests against the front surface of the hammer lever adjacent the pivot, but is able to pivot freely away from the hammer lever against the effect of its spring, to permit the return movement of the trigger lever.

nited States Patent 1191 Leaman June 26, 1973 [5 TOY PISTOLS 2,866,28712 1958 Ryan ..42/58 2,977,950 4 19 1 R 1 Graham Leamancmsskeyst3,158,948 12/1924 rig d 23% England 3,251,153 5/1966 Mittelsteadt 42/65[73] Assignee: The Crescent Toy Company Limited,

Cwmcarn, Monmouthshire, England Filed: Nov. 17, 1971 Appl. No.: 199,443

Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 15, 1970 Great Britain 59,549/70US. Cl 42/58, 42/65, 42/69 R Int. Cl. F4lc 3/06, F410 19/00 Field ofSearch 42/58, 54, 65, 66,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 11/1955 Hersey 42/58 PrimaryExaminer-Benjamin A. Borchelt Assistant Examiner-C. T. JordanAttorney-Roberts B. Larson, Ross F. HuntJr. et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT A toy pistol has a hammer mechanism which includes ahammer lever controlled by a cam surface which cooperates with a noseportion on the trigger lever. The

1 Claim, 4 Drawing Figures TOY PISTOLS The hammer mechanism of a toypistol is normally operated by cooperation between two cam surfaces, oneon a lever arm controlled directly by the trigger and the other on ahammer lever which carries the hammer proper. These two cam surfaceseach comprise a nose portion in the shape of a somewhat rounded V.Before the start of an operation the nose on the trigger lever liesbeneath and in contact with the side of the nose on the hammer lever. Asthe trigger is pulled the nose on the trigger lever is raised, lever isthus raising the nose on the hammer lever and moving the hammer itselfbackwardly against the effect of its spring. As the movement continuesthe nose on the trigger lever moves along the undersurface of the noseon the hammer lever until the limit of its movement is reached when itslides off the end of this surface (i.e., as it reaches the apex of thenose portion of the hammer lever) and this then releases the hammerlever abruptly to fire the pistol, under the control of the hammerspring.

As soon as this has happened the nose on the hammer lever lies beneaththe nose on the trigger lever and when the trigger is released the noseon the trigger lever bears against the upper surface of the nose on thehammer lever which thus tends to prevent the return of the trigger toits starting position. To permit the full return movement of the triggereither the trigger itself or the hammer lever may be mounted on a pivotwhich is free to slide in a slot and the action of the trigger returnspring thus produces a sliding motion which enables the nose on thetrigger lever to move downwardly past the nose on the hammer lever so asto return to a position in which it engages the underside of the nose onthe hammer lever. This movement involves a considerable amount offriction and unless a very strong trigger re turn spring is fitted,which is undesirable, there is a risk that the trigger may not return toits fully forward position. The problem of sticky" or non-retumingtriggers is an inherent one in the design of toy pistols.

According to the present invention the cam surface which cooperates withthe nose portion on the trigger lever so as to control the hammer leveris formed on a separate member turning about the same fixed pivot as thehammer lever and spring loaded by means of a light spring so that itnormally rests against the front surface of the hammer lever adjacentthe pivot, but is able to pivot freely away from the hammer leveragainst the effect of its spring, to permit the return movement of thetrigger lever.

The improved effect obtained by means of a construction in accordancewith the invention can best be described by reference to theaccompanying drawings which show an example of a construction inaccordance with the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows the hammer and trigger mechanisms and associated parts of atoy pistol in a position just before the release of the hammer lever;

FIG. 2 is a similar view showing the position of the parts immediatelyafter the release of the hammer lever;

FIG. 3 is a further similar view showing successive stages in the returnmovement of the trigger mechanism; and

FIG. 4 is a detailed, exploded perspective view illustrating therelationship between the hammer lever and a separate cam membercontrolling its movement.

Turning first to FIG. 1, this shows the operative parts of a toy pistolincluding a hammer mechanism indicated generally as 1, a triggermechanism indicated generally as 2 and a cylinder 3 part of which isshown in section at 4 to illustrate the provision of firing pins 5 forthe reception of a ring amorce or cap, part of which is shown in dottedoutline at 6. The cylinder 3 is indexed by means of a finger 8 whichcooperates with a ring of teeth 9 on the rear face of the cylinder 3 andis pivoted to the trigger lever at 10. Each time the trigger shown as 12is operated, the cylinder 3 is indexed one step by the finger 8 in awell-known manner. The construction of the cylinder itself is describedin more detail in the copending application Ser. No. 199,608, filed Nov.17, l97l.

The trigger 12 is pivoted at 14 and is controlled by means of a spring15 which encircles the pivot and bears at one end against a stop 16 inthe body of the pistol and at the other end against a stop 18 on thetrigger lever 19, the extreme end 20 of the spring controlling theindexing finger 8. The trigger lever 19 is formed with a cam surface inthe shape of a nose portion 22 which cooperates with a similarly shapedcam surface 23 which controls the movement of the hammer shown as 24. Asthe trigger 12 is operated the nose 22 rides along the underside of thenose 23 thus forcing back the hammer 24 against the effect of a controlspring 25 which encircles its pivot 26. FIG. 1 illustrates the extremerearward position of the hammer 24 in which the tip of the nose 22 hasjust reached the tip of the nose 23 so that any further movement causesthe nose 22 to move past the tip of the nose 23, thus releasing thehammer 24 and firing the pistol.

FIG. 2 shows the position of parts immediately after the release of thehammer 24. As can be seen, the hammer has moved forwardly to detonateone of the amorces or caps in the ring 6 and the cam surface 23 hasmoved downwardly, leaving the nose 22 in its uppermost position since,at this stage, the trigger 12 has not yet been released.

FIG. 3 shows, in the full line position of parts, the relative positionsjust after the release of the trigger 12. The nose portion 22 on thetrigger lever 19 first engages the cam surface just above the noseportion 23. To permit the full return movement of the trigger mechanism,the nose 22 must pass the nose 23 and, as previously described this hasin the past necessitated mounting either the pivot 14 for the triggermechanism or the pivot 26 for the hammer mechanism in a slot so as topermit relative motion between the two pivots thus providing thenecessary clearance for the two noses to pass one another. As shown inthe full line position of FIG. 3, however, the nose portion 23 has moveddownwardly by rotation about the pivot 26 and the nose portion 22 isjust about to pass beyond it. This is made possible by the constructionbest seen from FIG. 4. As can be seen from this Figure, the cam surfaceand nose portion 23 is formed not on the hammer lever itself, shown as30, but on a separate member 31 mounted to turn about the same pivot 26as the hammer lever 30. The cam surface is formed on a portion 32projecting laterally from the main body 31 of the member which fitsdirectly against the hammer lever 30 so that the portion 32 lies infront of the hammer lever.

FIG. 4 is an exploded view and the actual relationship of the parts isbest seen from FIGS. 1 to 3.

During the firing of the pistol, i.e., during the movement into theposition of FIG. 1 and slightly beyond, the nose portion 23 is pressedupwardly by the nose portion 22 on the trigger lever 19 so that themember 31 is caused to turn in a clockwise direction. Since the portion32 is in direct contact with the hammer lever 30, this movement istransmitted to the hammer lever to fire the pistol as already described.On the other hand, during the return movement of the mechanism theengagement between the nose portion 22 and the nose portion 23 causesthe latter to move downwardly as already described with relation to FIG.3, thus producing counter clockwise turning movement of the member 31which, as shown in FIG. 3, allows the portion 32 to move away from thehammer lever 30 so that the member 31 turns independently of the hammerlever 30, this movement being controlled by means of a light spring 35which offers very little resistance to the return movement of thetrigger lever 19.

Immediately after the full line position of FIG. 3 has been passed, thenose portion 22 passes beyond the nose portion 23, thus freeing themember 31 and allowing it to return to its rest position shown in dottedlines under the control of the spring 35. The return movement of thetrigger mechanism is also completed under the control of the springuntil the trigger returns to its rest position shown in dotted lines as12. In other words, during the firing of the pistol the force on thenose portion 23 is transmitted directly to the hammer 24 so as tooperate the latter in the normal way, but during the return movement ofthe trigger mechanism, the nose portion 23 yields without transmittingthe movement to the hammer 24 and allows the relatively unimpeded returnmovement of the trigger mechanism.

I claim:

1. In a toy pistol, the combination of hammer mechanism and triggermechanism wherein said trigger mechanism comprises a first fixed pivot,a trigger mounted to turn about said pivot and a trigger lever alsomounted to turn about said pivot in conjunction with said trigger, saidtrigger lever being formed with a nose portion, and said hammermechanism comprising a second fixed pivot, a hammer, a hammer levercarrying said hammer, said hammer lever having a front face and beingmounted to turn about said second fixed pivot, a separate member alsoturning about said second fixed pivot and spring means urging saidseparate member against said front face of said hammer lever, saidseparate member having a cam surface cooperating with said nose portionof said trigger lever, whereby operation of said trigger cocks andreleases said hammer mechanism and return movement of said trigger andsaid trigger lever is permitted by yielding of said separate member awayfrom said hammer lever against the action of said spring means.

1. In a toy pistol, the combination of hammer mechanism and triggermechanism wherein said trigger mechanism comprises a first fixed pivot,a trigger mounted to turn about said pivot and a trigger lever alsomounted to turn about said pivot in conjunction with said trigger, saidtrigger lever being formed with a nose portion, and said hammermechanism comprising a second fixed pivot, a hammer, a hammer levercarrying said hammer, said hammer lever having a front face and beingmounted to turn about said second fixed pivot, a separate member alsoturning about said second fixed pivot and spring means urging saidseparate member against said front face of said hammer lever, saidseparate member having a cam surface cooperating with said nose portionof said trigger lever, whereby operation of said trigger cocks andreleases said hammer mechanism and return movement of said trigger andsaid trigger lever is permitted by yielding of said separate member awayfrom said hammer lever against the action of said spring means.